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Jose Battle Corporation
The Jose Battle Corporation, also known as the Cuban Mob, are the strongest faction of the Cuban Mob, based in the NYC Metropolitan Area, founded by Jose Battle in the 1960s. The corporation has ties with La Cosa Nostra and is involved in arms dealing, drug trafficking, racketeering, corruption, fraud, and other Mafia-esque activities History the Corporation generates millions in illicit profits annually through a variety of criminal enterprises. These include video gambling, bookmaking, loan-sharking, narcotics trafficking, prostitution and cargo theft. Because such activities generate substantial amounts ofcash, the Corporation also is involved heavily in money laundering. Moreover, the Cuban mob has demonstrated a clear penchant for violence over the years, lashing out at would-be competitors and cracking down ruthlessly on members and associates suspected of treachery. Battle and his operatives also have displayed a particular talent for corrupting local political and law enforcement officials in furtherance of their criminal activities. The Cuban mob is similar to elements of traditional organized crime in its strictly defined organizational hierarchy. The Corporation essentially functions in a manner reflected by its name – through a “board of directors” structured according to criminal activity and managed in the fashion of a legitimate business running its various divisions. For many years, José Battle-Vargas was the hands-on chairman of the board, overseeing the Corporation’s criminal enterprises in the United States and Latin America from his base in southern Florida. Recently, however, Battle’s influence and grip have waned due to advanced age,illness and legal problems. In late 1996, federal agents raided his Miami estate, seizing gambling ledgers, firearms and more than $87,000 in cash. He was convicted in federal court in 1997 of illegal possession of a weapon and sentenced to 18 months in prison. In a separate matter, Battle pled guilty to two counts of fraud in U.S. District Court in Miami based upon charges that he pasted his picture on another individual’s U.S. passport and used it to travel throughout Latin America between 1993 and 1996. He was sentenced to an additional six months in prison and three years supervised release. On March 18, 2004, the U. S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida unsealed an indictment charging Battle and 24 other high-ranking individuals associated with the Corporation with racketeering and gambling. The terminology employed in this indictment to describe positions within the organization was revealing in its corporate overtones: “chairman”, “vice chairman”, “board of directors” and “bankers.” The indictment charged that the Corporation engaged in extensive illegal gambling enterprises, narcotics trafficking, theft of merchandise from 77hijacked trucks, and acts of violence and intimidation, including arson, assault and homicide over a period of four decades. The millions of dollars generated by the illicit activities are alleged to have been laundered through various paper companies in South Florida, as well as through the development and operation of a casino/hotel complex in Lima, Peru. In addition to these legal problems Battle is said by his attorneys to be suffering from advanced kidney disease. Law enforcement officials say that because of the aforementioned factors, overall control of the Corporation’s directorate shifted intothe and trusted associates with supervisory capability, including his son and possible heir apparent, Jose Miguel Battle-Rodriguez, also known as Battle, Jr. Despite this shift in control, however, the future viability of the Corporation remains in doubt as a result of the March2004 federal indictments, which also snared Battle, Jr. and many other top lieutenants. Battle, Jr., also known as Jose R. Batlle, and within the organization as acting “Padrino”, was arrested at 4:30 a.m. on March 19 aboard a cruise ship in the central Caribbean. U.S. Coast Guard officials, in conjunction with Justice Department authorities, decided to take him into custody on the high seas in order to prevent a possible flight from prosecution once the ship reached its next port call in Costa Rica. Upon apprehension, Battle, Jr. was transferred to the confines of a nearby guided-missile cruiser, which was on routine counter-drug operations in the Caribbean. Based in Miami, the group’s influence nonetheless extends to the New York/New Jersey region. The “board members” are principals in many of the group’s enterprises and specifically exert some measure of control over gambling, narcotics, money laundering and cargo-theft operations. A key player is Gumersindo “Rolly” González-Herrera, who fulfills the role of high-level “super banker” for illicit gambling outlets operated by the Cuban mob in New York and New Jersey. In addition to Battle, Jr. and González-Herrera, the Commission has identified more than 40 other key players whose criminal activities impact on New Jersey. The Corporation’s criminal activities in this region are centered in upper Manhattan, Brooklyn and The Bronx in New York City, and, in New Jersey, in northern Hudson County – primarily in the communities of Union City, West New York and Guttenberg – and parts of Bergen, Essex, Middlesex, Monmouth and Morris counties. The group also has established a limited presence in Bridgeton and Vineland in Cumberland County and in Atlantic County. While the Cuban mob engages in the typical array of organized crime ventures,including drug trafficking, cargo theft, bribery, extortion and official corruption, its primary moneymaking endeavor is illegal gambling. The Corporation essentially controls all video gaming operations across northern New Jersey’s Latino community. Illicit machinery is routinely installed, maintained and overseen by Battle operatives in hundreds of small grocery stores, bars, bodegas, restaurants, delicatessens, laundries, video stores, pizza parlors and other venues. Owners who do not want the machines or do not appreciate the small share of profits they receive face threats, intimidation and the prospect of being driven out of business. The leading suppliers of video gambling machines controlled by the Cuban mob are José A. “Chicho” Grana and his son, José Grana, Jr., who until 1999 operated a company known as Boardwalk Amusements. Law enforcement officials say machines originating with the Granas have been placed in more than 250 business venues in Hudson County alone. Another supplier known to have associated with members of the Cuban mob is identified as Funhouse Amusements, owned and operated by Miguel “Miguelito” Morales and his son, Miguel Morales, Jr. The Corporation’s gambling empire, however, extends well beyond video machines. The group also draws substantial revenues from la bolita, the Latino version of an illegal numbers, or “policy,” racket. La bolita is derived from the pari-mutuel handle from one of the major horse racing tracks in the New York metropolitan area. Besides providing the Cuban mob with a steady and substantial profit stream with which to underwrite other criminal ventures, la bolita serves as an effective money laundering tool, along with illicit lottery operations based on the legitimate lotteries of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Tickets from those lotteries are transported north and illegally sold here on the streets at a premium, usually twice the face value of the tickets. Winners here are paid in cash with Corporation “dirty” money. Battle associates, in turn, take the actual winning tickets back to either of the respective Caribbean islands and redeem them for “clean” money. The cash flow associated with these schemes is enormous. In one instance, law enforcement officials calculated that la bolita proceeds routed through a single Cuban mob “safe house” in upper Manhattan totaled more than $1 million per week. Among the Corporation’s principal numbers bosses in New York and New Jersey is Gumersindo “Rolly” González-Herrera. State Police Detective Sergeant Fernando Pineiro testified at the Commission’s public hearing that during February 1, 2000, gambling raid, authorities uncovered $250,000 in secret compartments located throughout González-Herrera’s North Bergen house. The Cuban mob also has a hand in illegal sports betting, operating telephoneequipped bookmaking parlors known as “wire rooms” predominantly on the New York side of the Hudson. Former partnership arrangements worked out with elements of the traditional La Cosa Nostra, to which the Corporation once referred indebted gamblers for collection and repayment, are no longer necessary because the Cuban mob now collects its own debts. Law enforcement sources have identified at least two “super bankers” (so called because of the size of the gambling enterprise and their ability to cover the action placed) who serve as principal bookmaking bosses for the Corporation in New York and New Jersey. Detective Sergeant Pineiro testified that a 1999 investigation by the federal IRS, FBI, Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office and New York City Police Department led to the arrest of leaders and operatives of a Corporation offshoot known as “The Company.” Manuel Alvarez, Sr. of North Bergen and Manuel Alvarez, Jr. of Franklin Lakes in Bergen County ran the operation. The investigation resulted in the seizure of approximately $5.8 million. $982,000 in cash was seized at Alvarez, Sr.’s house and $262,000 was seized at Alvarez, Jr.’s house. Much of the money at Alvarez, Sr.’s residence had been there so long that the rubber bands holding it had dry rotted, according to Pineiro. Pointing out that gambling violations usually are mere crimes of the third degree, Detective Sergeant Pineiro described the dissatisfying consequences of investigations that can be quite lengthy, expensive and complicated. Category:Cuban crime families Category:Families